Paul Feig rejected making Ghostbusters sequel

Paul Feig rejected making 'Ghostbusters' sequel

Paul Feig rejected making 'Ghostbusters' sequel.

The 53-year-old film director - who made his breakthrough with the comedy movie 'Bridesmaids' in 2011 - has admitted he was hesitant about helming the reboot of the 1984 science fiction production and felt "pressure" to make the production live up to his expectations.

Speaking to Den of Geek website about the upcoming film, the screenwriter - who has worked alongside comedy actress Melissa McCarthy on 'Spy', and 'Heat' - said: "I felt the pressure.

"People were excited to be on this film. Everybody has just a love for the original properly, and I think that they came to it excited to be on it, and also wanting to guard it.

"It's why I get testy at times ... This project came to me, I made a choice, and if I didn't do it, someone else would have done. I just did it the way that I thought was the best. I didn't want to make something that wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

"'Bridesmaids' and 'The Heat' had done well, and I was making 'Spy', and was happy with the way it was going. And suddenly I was a bit more cautious. Back in 2008, I'd have taken any version of 'Ghostbusters', but now I was like, 'I don't know'.

"To me, it felt like it'd been so long since 'Ghostbusters 2' even. It felt like a big gap ... It all added up to me saying I can't figure my way into this. So I passed."

However, after a lot of trial and effort Paul was eventually convinced when he decided on featuring an all-female cast.

He explained: "[Head of Sony Pictures] Amy Pascal called me again ... she took me for lunch and asked 'why don't any of you comedy guys want to do this?'

"I said it's this giant thing. It's like redoing 'The Godfather'. And she said it's this great franchise. But I left, saying no.

"Yet I thought she was right. It's such a great idea. I love the original movies so much, but there's so much more you could be doing with that. The next day I got thinking: if I was going to do it, how would I do it? And I thought wait, I could do it with the funny women I know."

Physicist Erin (Wiig) finds herself teaming up with estranged high school pal Abby (McCarthy) and her eccentric engineer Jillian (McKinnon) in search of ghosts. Marred only by excessive reverence for the original, it's a spirited, funny and touching reboot which sticks two fingers up at sexist trolls.